This year, Trans Pride LA celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter-century of uplifting the experiences of the trans and gender-expansive community of Los Angeles. What began as a single-afternoon event has grown into a two-day blowout hosted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center, featuring food, live music, dozens of market and resource vendors, and the annual Trans Town Hall at the Renberg Theatre.
“It blows my mind to think that Trans Pride is in its 25th year. It’s such a huge milestone,” said Gina Bigham, organizer of Trans Pride LA and manager of the Center’s Trans*Lounge program.
“I know we live in very difficult times where our safety and future feel under attack,” Bigham said. “Trans Pride is a space created especially for our gender-expansive community to feel safe and be among other like-minded individuals on the same journey…everyone who comes through our doors will be treated with respect and dignity.”
As it was from the very beginning, TPLA remains completely free to attend, welcoming community members from all over Southern California to connect with other trans and gender-expansive people and get linked to local resource and service providers.
Emilio Gabriel Caraballo, who has been attending Trans Pride LA since he first started receiving hormone therapy at the Center in 2016, held up Trans Pride LA’s inclusivity as the key to its continued success.
“I make the trip every year from Orange County. This is the safest I’ve ever felt at a Pride event. For me, it’s Trans Pride forever,” he said. “I love that we offer free entry, free food, and community services, because that’s how we’re keeping the vision of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera alive. That’s the main ingredient … taking care of one another.”
I make the trip every year from Orange County. This is the safest I’ve ever felt at a Pride event. For me, it’s Trans Pride forever.
Emilio Gabriel Caraballo
Many who attended this year’s festivities have been attending for multiple years, including Carlista Termini, who came out as trans just over six years ago. Termini has attended every Trans Pride LA since—even through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is my favorite time of the year,” she said. “I tell people I look forward to this more than I do Christmas, because this is the one time when I get to celebrate myself and my community, and just be in a state of love and compassion with all of us together.”
Others, like Hana Gemini Leyland, experienced their first Trans Pride LA this year and found a new thing to look forward to each June. “I’m already sad about it being over, and I’m already excited about it happening again,” she said. “Earlier, I was walking past somebody, and I heard them say ‘trans experience.’ If I were out and about in the world, I would be like, I have to talk to these people, because it’s such a small pocket. But today, everything is a trans experience—360 degrees of panoramic Dolby surround sound transness. Today is amazing.”
“This is my first Trans Pride, and it’s amazing,” said Morgan Hennessy. “I’ve been searching for something like this for a really long time. I didn’t know that it existed until literally last week, so it’s really comforting to have a space dedicated just for the community to connect, make friendships, and see each other in an environment where we feel affirmed.”
That feeling of affirmation and sense of community was repeatedly highlighted by attendees. In a time where trans people and the LGBTQ+ community at large are frequent targets of restrictive government policies and hateful political rhetoric, Trans Pride LA stands out as a much needed safe haven for the community.
I’m 31 years old, and I’m alive for the first time,” he said. “I’m turning 1, essentially. I’m alive thanks to the Center.
Cruz Reyna Ortiz
“[Attending Trans Pride LA] was the best thing I did last year, and it’s gonna be the best thing I did this year,” said DeDe Douglas. “I feel like a human being and that I have every right to fucking exist. I have so many allies and such a community here, and it’s the best thing in the world.”
Cruz Reyna Ortiz, first time Trans Pride LA attendee, began his transition last year with the help of the Center. “I’m 31 years old, and I’m alive for the first time,” he said. “I’m turning 1, essentially. I’m alive thanks to the Center.”
“We’re taught to stifle joy—everybody is taught to stifle joy, but us even more so as [trans people] because we are the purest expression of joy, and I think that scares people,” said Ortiz. “But right now I can dance, I can be stupid, and I can drink something and have fun safely because of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Trans Pride.”
Over 1,500 Angelenos attended the two-day TPLA celebration, which culminated in a street fair-style festival.
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